1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to urinary bladder catheters and particularly relates to a drainage mechanism for urinary catheters. The embodiments herein particularly relates to an indwelling, atraumatic urinary catheter with a safe retaining mechanism for draining the bladders during any medical procedures and in acute and chronic medical or surgical conditions rapidly to prevent an explosion and tissue traumatization.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many health care services, the urinary catheters are found useful in draining the bladders. The currently available catheters are often flexible tubes that are passed through the urethra into the bladder and provided with a fluid-refillable balloon element at the distal end. The main purpose of the balloon is to keep the catheter in the bladder securely. Furthermore, the full balloon, which is placed, on the bladder outlet prevents any leakage of the urine into the urethra so that the catheter will be the only way for draining the urine.
A common type of urinary catheters, also known as Foley catheters, has a balloon at the distal end. After the Foley catheter is inserted into the urethra and the bladder is reached, the balloon is filled with sterile water so that the inflated balloon prevents the catheter from escaping out. The Foley catheter is one of the most practical instruments in the medicine and is available in different sizes and different materials depending on the patient's age and medical problem. Some of the usages of the Foley are as follows.
The patients who are anesthetized or sedated for surgery or other medical care are catheterized since they are unable to control their urine. Measuring the hourly urinary output is an important parameter for monitoring patients after surgeries or calculating their response to some medications such as diuretics.
A patient, whose prostate is enlarged to the point that urine flow is cut-off, has to be catheterized and the catheter has to be kept in until the problem is resolved. In a prostate surgery, a post-operative bleeding is common, and when it left unchecked, the blood clots are formed in the bladder, which obstructs catheters tubule. In order to prevent the obstruction, three-way catheters are usually used to allow the bladder to be washed.
In chronic medical or surgical conditions, the urinary bladder has to be drained for weeks, months or in some cases for years. Examples of such conditions include comatose patients, diffuse axonal injury patients, the patients in vegetative stage for their rest of their life, etc.
Although the urinary Foley catheter is a very useful device in medicine, they have several disadvantages, which adversely affect on the health of a patient. One of the main problems occurs is a urethra injury or a tearing of a urethra when there is an accidental inflation of the catheters balloon inside the urethra instead of the bladder. The inflation causes urethra injury and even urethra tear. A partial or complete tear of the bladder leaves a scar, which narrows the urethra and also has a great chance for developing an infection.
Further, damage occurs during the removal of the catheter, when the balloon is not completely deflated. This causes a urethra injury or tear due to the fact that old patients or traumatized urethras are unable to expand enough thereby developing a tear in the urethral wall. A tear in urethral wall is also possible due to an accidental pulling off of the catheter while the balloon is still inflated inside the body. This is very frequent due to unconsciousness of the patients, patient's age and oftentimes in the emergency rooms. The pulling off catheter during the inflated condition of the balloon, is very painful and traumatizing the urethra which lead to serious health problems. In the case of a long-term use of the catheter, the balloon fails to deflate when the catheter is to be removed. This situation requires some complicated invasive procedures in order to puncture the balloon inside the urinary bladder.
Hence there is a need for an improved catheter system that eliminates safety issues and aforementioned problems with a balloon retention system faced by the current catheters. There is also need for a durable system that fulfills the need for long lasting usage.
The above-mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.